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Coal Black Mornings

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Coal Black Mornings

By: Brett Anderson
Narrated by: Brett Anderson, Matt Thorne
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About this listen

Listen to the end for an audiobook exclusive: Brett Anderson in conversation with Matt Thorne, author of Prince.

Brett Anderson came from a world impossibly distant from rock star success, and in Coal Black Mornings he traces the journey that took him from a childhood as 'a snotty, sniffy, slightly maudlin sort of boy raised on Salad Cream and milky tea and cheap meat' to becoming founder and lead singer of Suede.

Anderson grew up in Hayward's Heath on the grubby fringes of the Home Counties. As a teenager he clashed with his eccentric taxi-driving father (who would parade around their council house dressed as Lawrence of Arabia, air-conducting his favourite composers) and adored his beautiful, artistic mother. He brilliantly evokes the seventies, the suffocating discomfort of a very English kind of poverty and the burning need for escape that it breeds. Anderson charts the shabby romance of creativity as he travelled the tube in search of inspiration, fuelled by Marmite and nicotine, and Suede's rise from rehearsals in bedrooms, squats and pubs. And he catalogues the intense relationships that make and break bands as well as the devastating loss of his mother.

Coal Black Mornings is profoundly moving, funny and intense - a book which stands alongside the most emotionally truthful of personal stories.

©2018 Brett Anderson (P)2018 Little, Brown Book Group
Entertainment & Celebrities Music Celebrity Funny Heartfelt Thought-Provoking

Critic reviews

A remarkable feat, utterly true. This decade's Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (Douglas Coupland, author of Generation X and Girlfriend in a Coma)
Coal Black Mornings is a triumph . . . a bracingly honest work raised way above the celeb book fray by Anderson's obvious talent for writing . . . revelatory and delivered with writerly panache (John Harris)
A rich, sad and honest tale (Olivia Cole)
Beautifully crafted and brilliantly well-written . . . his memoir is a thought-provoking meditation on how our childhoods form the people we become, as well as a love letter to London . . . The book is perfect as it is, but there's no question that we need a second volume (Anna van Praagh)
Coal Black Mornings is excellent: evocative, thoughtful and frank; an instant hit in a minor key. Anderson is particularly good on his unusual upbringing . . . as accomplished a writer of elegant prose as he was of narcotically enhanced lyrics about urban ennui (Neil Armstrong)
Few rock memoirs are worthy of critical note. Brett Anderson's richly melancholic Coal Black Mornings was an exception. Eschewing the "coke and gold discs" template, the Suede singer recounts a childhood of bohemian poverty and traces his band's vivid prehistory (George Eaton)
2018 Music Book of the Year: A brilliant account of how growing up can be impossible and full of possibility, all at the same time (Victoria Segal)
All stars
Most relevant
This is an exceptional memoir by one of the most accomplished British songwriters of the past 30 years. It is beautifully written and perfectly evokes the atmosphere and build up to the early success of Suede, but could be enjoyed by any reader (whether or not familiar with the band) given the quality of the writing.

Exceptional Memoir

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Brett Anderson’s prose style is engaging, eloquent and poetic. This is no bog-standard rock biography but instead, a touching and delicately observed portrait of a highly unconventional upbringing which, whether you are a Suede devotee or not, is truly worth reading.

A beautiful one - beautifully told

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Amazing to hear it read by Author. Makes it ever so more special. I dont think you will be dissapointed.

Very enjoyable

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More Charles Dickens than Ian Hunter. Everything you hoped the Morrissey book would be. Probably the best music artist memoir ever written

Exceptional

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I tried to pace myself but couldn't. Brett's descriptive prose is difficult to tear yourself away from and I wanted more.

In terms of story it's an account of childhood, youth and band formation. But it's Brett's worldview that really captivates. The way he crystallises a certain time in a certain place that seems familiar in many ways and yet in others markedly distinct from my own youth.

A real accomplishment.

Enchanting

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